PhD Candidate: Sustainable, Long-term Investment Decisions

Welcome to Maastricht University!

The world is changing rapidly—and so are we. At Maastricht University, your work makes a difference. Whether you explore financial systems, contribute to academic research, or inspire students in the classroom, you help shape knowledge that moves society forward. In our international academic community, you work on questions that matter—for today and for the future.

PhD Candidate: Sustainable, Long-term Investment Decisions

• Our goal: Develop new financial insights that support sustainable, long-term investment decisions.
• Your colleagues: An international and collaborative community of PhD candidates, researchers, and faculty members within the Department of Finance and the Institute for Adaptation.

Financial markets increasingly face the challenge of balancing economic performance with long-term societal value. Investors, policymakers, and organisations are searching for better ways to integrate sustainability, externalities, and cultural value into investment decisions. At the same time, many existing financial models still struggle to fully capture the long-term impact of sustainable capital allocation.

That is why we are looking for a PhD candidate who wants to explore the future of sustainable finance. In this project, you investigate how financial markets can better account for environmental, social, and cultural externalities when making investment decisions. Building on foundational work by economists such as Arthur Pigou (1920), Ronald Coase (1991), and Elinor Ostrom (2009), your research contributes to a deeper understanding of how long-term sustainable value can be measured and integrated into financial decision-making.

You will work with unique datasets containing firm-level stock returns and company characteristics to analyse portfolio construction, capital allocation, and sustainable investment strategies. Using theoretical and empirical methods in finance, economics, and econometrics, you develop new insights into optimal sustainable portfolios and the creation of long-term value.

You will be based at Maastricht University’s Department of Finance at the School of Business and Economics (SBE), under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Rachel Pownall and Dr. Christian Wiehenkamp. As part of your PhD journey, you will also have the opportunity to collaborate with industry partners and undertake an internship at Effctl Capital GmbH in Munich, Germany.

Alongside your research, you contribute to teaching activities for approximately 20% of your appointment, supporting the next generation of finance professionals.

Are you ready to shape the future of sustainable finance? We would love to meet you.